We moved house recently. One of the issues about moving house with dogs, especially Siberian Houdinis, is making sure the new yard is secure. And that can take some time, especially when you have builders working on the property. But this week, we finally felt like everything was secure enough to leave the dogs home alone and both go to work. I mean, what can go wrong right? Ha!

Firstly, we had the old fences taken down and put back up. And then J found Bolo wandering up the street. He'd dug under an old gate, slipped around the garage and through the shubbery between the garage and the side fence. Fortunately J drove home just in time to find Bolo on the footpath just a couple of houses up the hill. Phew!

So J spent a couple of days putting up the Hotwire and putting down the biggest concrete pavers available. Meanwhile it's been raining and we've been trying to get the dogs to adjust to having an undercover deck to relax on and stay dry.

Yesterday I came home from work to two dry dogs and one dog with wet and muddy feet. I'll let you guess which one was wet. It turned out Bolo had tried to dig under the house. J tried to block the access.

Today I came home to two dry dogs and one wet and ridiculously muddy dog. Unbelievable! Fortunately the Hotwire and fence have held.

Clean!

Clean!

Not so clean!

J is currently down at the hardware shop, getting supplies to reinforce the wooden skirt around the base of the house.

Meanwhile, J has also been busy updating the dog's microchip information with our new address. Frankie and Czar both came up on the central database easily, but there has always been something hinky about Bolo's microchip - his number has a different number of digits and the central database tells us it's unlisted. This time J was able to do a universal search, and he found Bolo's record, in a different database. People who work with rescue dogs will understand how exciting this is - it was his ORIGINAL record! We now know his real birthdate, rather than his estimated age when J got him out of the Lost Dog's Home about ten years ago. When J first saw him, he was filthy and emaciated and refused to make eye contact with anyone. In four years of running the Siberian Husky Club of Victoria's rescue group, Bolo was J's worst case. They estimated his age at around 18 months old and gave him the default birthdate of 1/1/2006. His real birthdate is actually March 2005. Now, the difference between a one and a two year old dog is a bit hard to pick, it's more about muscle and condition than simple height or weight, but J and all the vets and rescue folks all agreed that Bolo, in his malnourished, skeletal state, was around 18 months. Realising now that he was closer to 2 1/2, puts a whole different perspective on his physical and psychological condition. J has often said he thought Bolo was very close to death by starvation when J collected him from Lost Dogs. Maybe he was closer than we thought.

So, while we are currently living on tenterhooks, waiting for his next escape attempt, worrying that he'll be successful, we are very glad to have our problem child. He's given J and then me and now our Wee Monster so much love. We've very lucky to have him.